Todays adventures started with a trip over the top of Mushigame to harvest a mudpond of Maruhiro koi farm . In this pond contained all of our Azukari koi held with this breeder , so it was a nervous time indeed . By the time we got there the breeder had dropped the water and the last bit was being pumped out by his helpers . The net was dragged round and then i heard the sound that every breeder dreads , the plop plop of young tosai skiping over the top of the water , there had been a random spawning . This leads to two problems , the fry will get big enough to eat the pellets meant for the azukari koi , and also that there is a male in the pond , of which were all supposed to be female !! So i guess the worry then spreads on to the customers who own some of said koi , ie ME ! Hinori san saw the concern on my face and said no problems , he had added two tosai and may be one of them must be male and spawned early , unlikely i thought , but hey ho lets see i thought . As the koi came out i started to get nervous as the koi diddnt seem to have grown a great deal . When we got back to the farm , the koi were measured and as usual badly photographed ! Some of the koi looked very good , but two were rejected straight away due to low not being able to ship then for a profit , now im tell ing you this to be honest , this kind of thing can happen , especially when like these two you are leaving non high class koi , so the lesson is if you couldnt handle this sort of disapointment , then dont do it ! Simples ! But on the other hand , a sanke we had left , along with a dianichi showa looked great , as did the gin rin showas , a kohkau , a couple of cheap ones ! So the lesson is , leave cheaper koi if you want , its fun and it can pay off and its a great gamble , but prepare for some diaspointment . We wil now look to leave fewer koi of higher class , as thats where we have had the higher percetage of sucess . Also be aware that the risk is also in high class koi going wrong , not coming out of the mud pond etc etc . But saying that , every now and then , ill leave somthing that i think it is a gamble , remembering that is what it is , a gamble ! On looking at the results the koi had grown , when i checked the records they had all done well , except a big sanke , which was never mesured as we run out of time to go back and do it , so we suspect the sanke had grown as the breeder was sure it has , then it dawned on us that the kohaku we were looking at , had grown to a massive 64cm from nisai to sansai( 50-64), that was making the rest look small , so another lesson , have everything to hand including all records lol ! From here feeling much happier it was off to Torazo looking for a kohaku for a customer , one was found and it fitted the bill quite well , but we knew there was a harvest of tanchos at another breeder so we thought best wait to compare ! Whilst there we had a look over the kohaku stocks , and there were some nice looking koi , but a bit out of the budget for me , had loads of orders for smaller high class nisai , so it was off to our next appointment at Oya koi farm . Ive not dealt much with these , but im hoping this will change in the near future .They have some stunning sanke , and also very famous for thier asagi . One sanke was bowled for our shop , i diddnt need any more sanke , but couldnt resist taking a peep at this one , It was stunning , Tsubo sumi throughout , and although a lot of money i diddnt think the koi was that expensive , but with the bill for this trip rapidly running up i thought to er on the side of caution . After the compulsary egg sandwich at the 9-11 , ( and heres me wondering why i still have tummy trouble 7 days after leaving the uk ) we went to Marusei . Here we bowled many many koi , looking for customers orders and some more for the trade .Somtimes its nice to amoung the non go sanke and see what you can find , some very nice unusual koi including some very nice scaled and doitsu kogkani ochiba . There then took place a dscussion about koi over 75cm , he said one ??? When i said no five , he faced suddenly took a turn for the serious , somthing was said i diddnt undertsand , but i guessed was really ??? Yes was the answer , an appointment was made for the next day first thing as it was at another facility . From here a hop skip and jump and we were at Yamazaki .Again famous for his non go sanke and nearly mobbed alive for his amazing hariwakes ! Here we only had under an hour as the breeder had more people coming in for a 3pm appointment . First of all we went through the sansai for some hariwake , three doitsu all female and one scaled male hariwake all around 50cm . After taking pics it was into the nisai for a box of unusual koi , four stunning female gin matsuba around 40cm , a very odd looking kin showa that was yellow instead of red ! A couple of scaled hariwakes ( one gin rin ) and a gin rin ki utsuri whose sumi was very dark for this variety . This was a bit of a relief as we diddnt buy anything from Oofuchi , Marusie and Yamazaki saved the day ! Miya was next , havnt bought here for a while as we just dont have time to go to everybody nowadays , he had some amazing koi , and many many varietys , nothing was purchased as we had an appointment at kawakami , looking for a smilier goshiki that we had bought the other day and could have sold five times over ! When we had arrived it was obvious that he had harvested again and the place wa full of new koi . Straight to the pond where we had bought the goshiki from , he had a better one and it was far more expensive .I thought oh well in for a penny in for a yen ! As she was brought to the net she looked stiunning , and then the breeder said Gary San , goshiki male , i was a bit shocked as the price wasnt cheap, and now that it was male , it did put it out of the range of selling in the shop . I like males , and can sell expensive ones , but there is a limit , and this one was a little past that , shame as it was beautifull ! So ended another day , lots of non go sanke and a great hravest . First six pics are koi harvested from Maruhiro koi farm , The rest are non go sanke from Marusei and Yamazaki